The present invention relates to an apparatus in the form of a book, booklet, magazine or similar construction having special utility as an aid to the improved learning, comprehension, ability to converse, and study of a foreign or unfamiliar language.
The learning of a foreign language is often a daunting prospect. One of the great difficulties associated with such a process is the difficulty in associating sentence structure and construction in a foreign language with the corresponding translation in the student's own tongue. In order to become comfortable in the reading and translation of a foreign language, it is helpful for the reader to have available a translation which can be easily referred to in a manner that would not overly disturb the thought process.
Traditionally, books and the like having readings adapted for learning are provided with translations of selected words in an alphabetical listing at the rear of the volume. This requires a turning of the pages and the effort to locate the specific word of interest in the often extensive listing. Further, not all words are listed, and the words that are included do not always have the precise form of the word of interest, thus requiring additional effort on behalf of the user to locate the related form and convert that form to the form of the word desired. Oftentimes this additional effort and time causes sufficient distraction from the basic text as to intrude upon the continuity of the reading.
It is further recognized that improved learning occurs by exposure to and appreciation of complete thoughts and speech patterns expressed in the flow of a language as it is often used. Thus, the traditional word-by-word translation should be supplemented or replaced by a more free-form translation, corresponding to the rendering of entire expressions or phrases, sometimes requiring a rejecton of a literal translation to provide a contextually correct and smooth translation. The traditional approach discussed above does not render itself easily adapted to such a methodology.
It is thus a purpose of the present invention to provide an apparatus which will make a translation of a reading more accessible to the user, and which will provide an increased recognition and appreciation of the sense of a foreign language as it is actually employed.
Yet a further purpose of the present invention is to provide such a translation, preferably in format which integrates both text and illustration, which will allow almost instantaneous conversion between languages.
Still another purpose of the present invention is to provide a mechanism by which translations between a plurality of languages may be presented with respect to a written text, each translation being presented in the form that passages in any of the presented languages can be compared in each of the languages represented.
The scope of the invention is such that it can be used in a variety of other formats where improved accessibility between two related sets of data are desired in a printed format.